Archives for January 2017

New York is one of the first states to sue the Trump administration over his executive order restricting refugees and immigration. Washington, Massachusetts have also filed suit.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman told The Associated Press that he doesn’t think Trump has respect for the rule of the law. Schneiderman and the Massachusetts Attorney General announced separately that their offices were joining legal challenges to Trump already filed in their states by the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups.
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Good news if you’re a driver. Gasoline prices are going down. In Bradford a gallon costs $2.49 for unleaded, on average this week, according to the American Automobile Association Fuel Gauge Report. Around the area the average price for gas stands at $2.57 and that’s four cents a gallon less than last week. AAA officials said the nationwide price for gas is $2.27 a gallon.

People just aren’t spending as much money as they used to in Olean and Cattaraugus County. The Office of the State Comptroller reported Monday that sales tax revenues in THE CITY OF OLEAN saw the largest decrease of any city in the state, for 2016,. It was down by 4.3 percent. And CATTARAUGUS COUNTY had one of the steepest drops in sales tax receipts from 2015 to 2016 in the state. Sales tax collections dropped by $1.4 million, or 3.9 percent.
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Will it be the maxiumum sentence for a Kill Buck woman convicted of killing her 1-year-old daughter or something less? We’ll find out friday when 26 year old Leslie Finch is sentennced in Salamanca City Court. She could get as much as 25 years in state prison after being found guilty of first-degree manslaughter for shaking her baby so violently that she died of a brain injury less than two weeks after her first birthday,

The future of Carl Paladino’s as a member of the Buffalo Board of Education now rests with the state’s education commissioner. The State Education Department has recieved four petitions asking Commissioner MaryEllen Elia to remove Paladino from the School Board, for derogatory, some say racist, comments about then President Obama and the first lady. The four petitioners are: The Buffalo School Board.
The Buffalo Teachers Federation and its parent organization the New York State United Teachers. The Buffalo Parent-Teacher Organization and the Buffalo chapter of the NAACP and the District Parent Coordinating Council. A ruling typically could take many months, but the State Education Department has hinted it might move quicker.
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There’s a new shelter along the Ellicottville-Great Valley Recreational Trail head. And it’s been a learning experience for carpentry and construction students from the Career and Technical Center. They built a shelter at the trailhead located just off the parking lot at the Town Center/Nannen Arboretum on Fillmore Avenue.

The Salamanca school board will hear details today of a $51M capital project recommendation. The committee making the reccomendations reviewed the final proposed floor plans with architects and now are ready to tell the school board what it thinks. The board will have the final say in the cost and size of any project. The project coming out of this ad-hoc committee could total about $51 million and have zero cost to the community.
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Donations are needed for a summer reading program at The Allegany Public Library. It’s come up a little short. Children’s librarian Jeff Harvey is asking for toys, certificates, gifts, coupons and of course, cash to help draw kids into the library and read books this summer. The program’s summer kick-off takes place in June after the school year is completed. The program’s been around for over 20 years. The library’s limited funding, has made the annual appeal a necessity.

Two people were killed and another’s in a coma after a vehicle collision Friday evening in ella cut ville.
60 year old Clinton Kriv-ulka lost control of his Dodge Caravan on the icy Route 242 at approximately and went into a spin. He crossed into the oncoming lane and a Dodge Ram pickup truck struck the rear of the van. Police said the the pickup driver was not at fault.
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The annual Tony Dolan Memorial Ski for Cancer was a success, despite less than optimal weather over the weekend.
Saturday’s 38th annual event raised just over $21,000 accordind to organizer Betsy Eschrich. The event was first organized by Eschrich’s father, Tony Dolan, in 1979.
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The new president of the New York STate Sheriff’s Association has a local connection. Cattaraugus County Sheriff Timothy Whitcomb was sworn in this past week as president to lead the statewide organization.

The new president of the New York STate Sheriff’s Association has a local connection. Cattaraugus County Sheriff Timothy Whitcomb was sworn in this past week as president to lead the statewide organization. Former Cattaraugus County Sheriff Jerry Burrell, who was president from 1985-1996, was at the ceremony as well.
The NYS Sheriffs’ Association organizes training and development programs for sheriff’s offices, including law enforcement, traffic safety, emergency rescue, homeland security, emergency response and other duties.
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A fire at Raught’s Country Kitchen in Keating Township has been ruled an accident, according to state police fire marshal Cpl. Greg Agosti. He says heat from the boiler ignited dust and wood flooring material below the heating unit. Two juveniles were treated and released for smoke inhalation after they tried to put the fire out. The fire caused an estimated $30,000 in damages.
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A Venango County jury has found Paul Morrisroe guilty of vehicular homicide. He was charged with homicide by motor vehicle while driving under the influence of alcohol and marijuana for the hit-and-run crash in 2015 that killed 20 year old Dakota Heinaman.
The jury deliberated all day Thursday and came back with a verdict shortly before 6 p.m. Morrisroe is in McKean County Jail in Smethport. No sentencing date has been set.
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Norwich Township is getting $2.75Million dollars in state funding to upgrade it’s water system. The upgrade will address untreated or partially treated sewage in publicly accessible areas. The project will also protect nearby waterways and private wells.
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Police say they’ve taken a druge dealer off the streets of Allentown. 32 year old Shawn Wright was arrested for several counts of felony sale and possession of drugs.
He’s being held in Allegany County Jail to await a Feb. 21 court appearance,

A storage barn fire in Salamanca caused about $100,000. But it could have been much worse. About $1 million worth of contents inside the building were saved. It happened on Mill Street behind the Holiday Inn Express. The fire’s still under investigation.
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A former employee at Beacon Light Behavioral Health Systems has two more charges to deal with. twenty nine year old Brian McLaughlin was charged in October for allegedly having a romantic relationship with a student. The new charges are institutional sexual assault and unlawful contact with a minor-sexual offenses.
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A Little Valley man is charged with raping a juvenile. 27 year old Loren Warner was arraigned and taken to Cattaraugus County Jail in Little Valley in lieu of $30,000 bail.
Warner allegedly had sex with a 14-year-old victim. State police say the investigation may involve multiple victims in New York and other states as well.

The prosecution and defense rested their cases in the fatal hit-and-run trial of Paul Morrisroe. The trial was moved to Venango County Court in Franklin.
Morrisroe’s accused of vehicular homicide. Police say he was drunk and high on marijuana when his pickup hit and killed 20 year old Dakota Heinaman in 2015. Morrisroe did not take the stand in his own defense.
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A Mass to honor Olean World War II hero, Louis Zamperini, on his 100th birthday will be held at 7 a.m. today at St. Mary of the Angels Church at 202 South Union St.
The event honors Zamperini’s memory as an exceptional American Olympian and war hero. Zamperini was a world-class runner in the 1936 Olympics. During World War II, he survived 47 days at sea after his plane went down in the ocean then suffered three years of brutality in Japanese prisoner camps. He was the focus of the book and movie “Unbroken”.

The Olean City School District is getting some more state money for our schools.
It’s part of a more than $1 billion increase in school aid announced by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The Foundation Aid will get $375,700 more in the 2017-18 school year.
A welcome surprise to the school district. In addition to Foundation Aid money, the district will also have slight increases in funding for pre-kindergarten, BOCES, technology and hardware, and software, libraries and textbooks.
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Three old buildings in Bradford are coming down. The Bradford City Council accepted bids to demolish the and take the debris to the McKean County Landfill.
The move is part of the city’s ongoing struggle to fight blight.
Mayor Tom Riel suggested the long-empty homes have not been contributing to the tax base, and Sara Andrews, executive director of the Office of Economic and Community Development, agreed that it’s true they have not brought in property taxes “for quite awhile.”